The blog contains articles by the author which appear in various newspapers in Kashmir and are also available on the website: www.kashmirfirst.com

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

The Hindu Rashtra and Kashmir!

(With
the unprecedented victory of BJP in the U.P. elections giving rise to militant
Hindutva proclaiming India to be a Hindu Rashtra, the relationship of Kashmir
to India loses the very basic premise of accession!)

After the recent
phenomenal success in the U.P. elections, the RSS is going full steam ahead to
give practical shape to Golwalkar’s dream of turning India into a Hindu
Rashtra. Even there is talk of holding the Parliament elections in 2018 itself
to cash on the Hindutva wave generated during the U.P. elections. Slaughter
houses and meat shops have been closed. Many Muslims are running away from some
of the localities. The way seems clear for ushering in a real Hindu Rashtra
within a few years. In keeping with Golwalkar’s edict, there is no place for
non-Hindus in the India of the future. Muslims and other minorities would have
to live as second class citizens. Golwalkar
writes in his book, “We, or Our Nationhood Defined”, “The non-Hindu people of
Hindustan must either adopt Hindu culture and language, must learn and respect
and hold in reverence the Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but of those
of glorification of the Hindu race and culture ... In a word they must cease to
be foreigners, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu
nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential
treatment—not even citizens' rights.” This thought is now taking practical
shape. So far there is no substantial resistance to halt the process of
Hinduisation! The worst thing to happen is that even the judiciary including
the country’s apex court has been forced to mount the Hindutva Bandwagon! The
typical example is the highest court instead of itself giving a verdict about the
dispute on the site of the mosque, asking the two communities to settle it by
mediation!

Kashmiris are supposed to have supported the action regarding
the accession of the State by the erstwhile Dogra Maharaja to the Union of
India, in very unusual circumstances, through their undisputed leader of that
time specifically on the basis of India being a democratic and secular country
compared to Muslim Pakistan created on the basis of religion. They are supposed
to have rejected the two nation theory advocated by Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Pakistan was declared to be an Islamic Republic, a home for the Muslims of
united India! The creation of a separate country for Muslims was probably
because of the apprehension that the Hindus in undivided India would persecute
the Muslim minority. Till the recent takeover of the Indian Government by BJP
with Narinder Modi as the Prime Minister, India was proclaimed to be a Secular
and a Democratic Republic by various political parties including Congress which
came to rule over it. Even BJP as part of NDA did not openly try to change that
character. It is a different matter as to how secular and democratic it has
been! However, in spite of much discrimination in practice, the nomenclature of
Secular and Democratic Republic of India was continued. But now not only the
character of the Republic but its very nomenclature is proposed to be changed
by declaring it as a Hindu Rashtra, a home for Hindus only!

If India does really become a Hindu Rashtra, will it not
automatically negate the very basis of accession of the State to the Union of
India? A Muslim majority State has absolutely no basis to be part of a Republic
based on Hindu religion. The first thing that strikes one is whether Mohammad
Ali Jinnah was, after all, right in demanding a separate country for Muslims?
Had he foreseen the ultimate goal of the Hindu majority of India in spite of
its secular, progressive and democratic leadership at the time of its
independence? Kashmir which is a Muslim majority state, does not profess an
extremist religious ideology. Over the ages, it has been the most tolerant
society. In fact, the religious tinge to its struggle has been caused by the
extremist Hindutva elements in India. It is a reaction and a protest against
overt and covert Hindutva from the secular and progressive Kashmir which has
been a home for Muslims, Hindus and even Buddhists in the past. It has always
been proclaimed to be the “Valley of Saints”. Throughout its history, Sufis and
Rishis have been the most important and symbolic attribute of its character. Earlier,
Kashmiri youth have been protesting with green flags and even Pakistani flags
to irritate and frustrate Indian authorities but now they have a reason to
demonstrate and protect their Muslim character to prevent the Hindutva
onslaught. Even the so called mainstream parties in Kashmir which have been
persuading people to be part of India have become uncomfortable by the tearing
of the fig leaf of secularism. They have now been forced to acknowledge the
Hindutva onslaught on Kashmiri Muslims through RSS!

Unfortunately, the resistance against this onslaught from the
secular and progressive sections of the society has been very feeble and mostly
limited to some progressive educational institutions. During the worst period
of the partition mayhem, Mahatma Gandhi had seen the only ray of light in
Kashmir. One wonders what would have been his reaction if he was alive today.
May be he himself would have asked Kashmiris to part ways with Golwalkar’s
India!